


The Broken Sky

by elynne



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Shadowlands, prepatch events, that just ain't right
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27661877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elynne/pseuds/elynne
Summary: Obligations bring Khydann, along with new and old companions, to a horrifying revelation in the far north.





	The Broken Sky

"Northrend, again," Khydann muttered under her breath. Tsaarak tilted her head and gave an inquisitive chirp, but was soon distracted by the multitude of other Horde soldiers and mercenaries gathered on the icy parade grounds. 

Although she considered herself to be a free agent these days, with an honorable discharge from Horde military service (and even a medal for it, which she couldn't show anybody and was currently buried under a particular rock in the Barrens), when a crier had come to the remote outpost in Vol'dun where she was engaged in friendly competitive bargaining with a pair of vulpera, she couldn't help but take heed. At first she'd tried to discount it as yet another call to Horde "patriotism" in the seemingly endless war against the Alliance, but the mention of Sylvanas' name had made her ears twitch. One of the vulpera had accompanied her all the way back to the great port at Dazar'alor, keeping up a remarkably quick pace alongside Khydann's raptor on the back of a large hyena, and then stuck by the tauren's side as she began asking careful questions of other veterans in the taverns and alcoves of the bustling city. Khydann flicked an amused ear when the young vulpera--a hunter herself, named Jirixi--anxiously asked after Kiro, her own race's representative to the Horde, and heaved a small sigh of relief on hearing that he was safe.

The other news from Azeroth left little room for relief or amusement. Mysterious crates of grain had appeared outside the walls of Orgrimmar and Stormwind, and enough people had been foolish enough to accept the seemingly free food that both cities were now fighting off hordes of undead. Khydann shuddered, remembering a few harrowing days spent with her old mercenary company, when they'd been brought in to try and contain the seemingly endless flow of plagued zombies roaming the streets. Although the two capitals had been hit hard this time, it sounded like most of the other cities and various outposts around the world were currently only suffering minor outbreaks and were holding steady. Still, there were packs of infectious ghouls roaming the countryside once again, a nightmare from the past come back to haunt the present. Thrall, his mate Aggra, King Wrynn of Stormwind, and the powerful human mage Jaina were all missing. Lor'themar Theron, the leader of the blood elves, was known to be free--but Baine Bloodhoof, her own High Chief, was rumored to have been captured as well, news that made her grind her teeth with anger and anxiety. An attempt had been made to take Tyrande, the night elf princess, but... the rumors were conflicted, and sounded strange to Khydann's ears. Even more confusing, there was another rumor that Nathanos Blightcaller, Sylvanas' hated errand boy, had made a public spectacle of himself at his old homestead in the Plaguelands, and been eventually put down by a small army of allied Horde and Alliance warriors... along with Tyrande? 

Standing on a pier before a Horde ship, nostrils flaring at the scents of spices and steaming jungles eddying between warm sea winds, Khydann hesitated. She had left behind the soldier's life years ago and found happiness again in her solitary wandering. She had no tribe, no family but her faithful raptor Tsaarak, no obligations... the Horde called, but she did not have to heed its beckoning. There were still places in Zandalar she had not seen, and she knew that there were expeditions available to yet more islands. 

A cold breeze made her fur bristle, and she shivered, ears back, as a dwarven-forged locket kept close against her chest suddenly pulsed with an icy spike. "Not exactly free of obligations, after all," she murmured, touching the strap that held her very well-maintained rifle across her back. 

"What was that?" piped Jirixi, who had stayed close by her side the entire time.

"I'm going to volunteer myself for service," Khydann told her, walking towards the gangplank, Tsaarak shadowing her steps. 

"Oh, yeah?" the goblin-sized hunter replied, huge ears flicking. Jirixi shrugged and trotted onto the ship behind her. "Sounds like a good way to see the world!"

"Well... maybe not a good way," Khydann said, picking her way across the busy deck towards the hold. "It'll probably be dangerous, annoying, and even boring, sometimes."

As Khydann found a place to stow her pack, the vulpera clambered nimbly up into a hammock, her own hyena companion flopping comfortably onto the pile of ropes lying below. "Yeah... so where have you ever lived, that wasn't dangerous, annoying, or even boring sometimes?" 

Khydann had to laugh, and nodded at the bright eyes examining her as she seated herself on the deck. "You've got a point," she admitted, stroking Tsaarak's feathers and encouraging the raptor to settle beside her. "Just keep in mind that I tried to warn you."

*****

"You didn't warn me it would be this blasted cold," Jirixi complained almost a week later, though it was difficult to make her words out through the chattering of her teeth and the mass of furs that she was bundled into, astride her shivering hyena.

"I didn't know we'd be coming up here, though I should have realized when I heard about the plague zombies," Khydann replied as they shuffled forward. Their line of warriors was already half-boarded onto the massive airship that would take them to the next staging point. "You're going to have to swallow your pride and ask one of the mages for a warming charm once we get settled, or the frostbite will take the tips off your fingers."

"Frost... bite?" She couldn't see the vulpera's ears under three layers of hoods, but Khydann would have bet good gold that they were laid flat on Jirixi's head. "There's something that will bite me?"

"The cold will," Khydann said as the walked up another gangplank together. "We're going someplace called Icecrown, and it's going to make this place seem positively balmy in comparison." 

Once settled on the airship, Khydann was delighted to find Rajakumadi, her old friend from Bad Moon Rising, on board as well. At first hesitant to suggest that the troll mage cast a warming charm for her small companion for fear of setting Jirixi's robes alight, Raja proudly displayed that he had far more control over his magic than he had in his youth. The two days of their flight passed companionably enough, among many other soldiers who were happy to gossip, gamble, and surreptitiously pass flasks of warming drinks behind the backs of watchful officers. As they neared their destination, though, whispers of unease began to spread through the crowded hold, coming from the windows near the front of the craft. 

When they finally landed and spilled out onto the creaking ice fields, shoving the people ahead of them to get clear of the zeppelin, they looked up... and slowed, mouths agape, to be pushed along in turn. Almost every head was turned to the sky, murmurs broken by the occasional cry of distress. Officers prodded them away from the landing field, trying to keep order, but it was clear they were also deeply disturbed by the sight of the sky above them.

"What... what..." Jirixi stuttered, clinging to her hyena's back.

"I have no idea," Khydann said, one hand on Tsaarak's back as she stumbled over frosted rocks, trying to keep up with her formation but unable to look down for more than a glance before her gaze was drawn back up. "It wasn't like that the last time I was here!"

Icecrown had always been perpetually covered in a grey, roiling sky which often flickered with lightning, dreadful storms gathered over the throne of the Lich King as if to hide the sight of the crimes against life itself that had been committed on that frozen, jagged land. But now, the grey sky was--broken. The storm clouds still rolled far above, but when they reached the ragged edges of the hole, they seemed to turn into massive stones that somehow fell up, vanishing into a void spilling hellish light across the wastes below. 

"Sylvanas did this." Khydann flicked her ears at the grating voice beside her, glancing over to the death knight that stood nearby, also staring at the sky. Many others around had also quieted to listen. "She fought our Lich King on his frozen throne, and she took the Helm of Domination from his brow. But instead of donning it and becoming the Lich Queen... she broke it." The death knight paused as mutters passed through the crowd. "The undead are attacking because there is no more Lich King to keep them under control. Nobody knows why she did it. And this," gesturing vaguely up with a black gauntlet, "is the result. To the tally of her crimes, add destruction of a relic, endangering every living being on Azeroth... and... this."

Veteran and newcomer alike shivered convulsively, staring at the massive abomination above them, the gaping wrongness overhead.


End file.
